Math Resource

See Inside Math: Internet Referenced by Peter Tallant


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My new favorite math resource! Every major math concept is taught simply. This book is busy, but it's so detailed that you can take a short section and work out problems on a wipe board with your kids.

Curriculum for 2009--10

Here's a basic run down of our curriculum for the 2009-10 school year:

• Math: Saxon Math
• Phonics/Grammar: Daily Grams and Explode the Code
• Spelling: Dr. Aardsma's Spelling Drills
• Reading: McGuffy Readers & library readers. They've each selected several books they plan on reading.
• History: A Rendezvous with Idaho History, Story of the World vol 1 and 2, and library research into Early Eastern Civilizations (Olivia).
• Scholar: Olivia will take a weekly scholar class where she will continue reading English and American classics.
• Geography: Evan-Moor Geography workbooks
• Science: Library books and Delta Science kits.
• PE: Working on the farm and basketball in the winter
• Music: Piano lessons
• Clubs: Boys scouts, 4-H (they are starting this year round this year) and Primary Activity Days for Girls

June 10, 2009 (Wednesday)

We didn't have mom school today. I had a Primary Presidency meeting. By the time I got home nobody wanted to do it. That's why it's summer. Choices!

On the way to our scholar school today we listened to more Spanish. The kids are really starting to get some of it. I highly recommend Power Glide!

Olivia: Read her scriptures, chores, defined her 10 words from Thomas Paine, answered the questioned to Common Sense by Thomas Paine, went to scholar school and discussed Common Sense, word of the day, practiced singing, watched Cranford with me (her brain was friend from 5 hours of Thomas Paine) and played golf.

Jared: Read his scriptures, chores, cleaned his hamster gage, read for 3 hours, practiced his piano lesson and played a lot.

Luke: Read his scriptures, chores, read several random picture books, got lots of good exercise outside, and had fun.


Caleb: Read his scriptures, chores, read several picture books, played outside a lot and had fun.

Family (in the evening):
Song: How Firm a Foundation
Scripture Memorization: 2 Nephi 25:26
Family Scripture Study: Acts 6

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, word of the day, had a Presidency meeting, practiced my piano recital piece, read for several hours and finished my reading assignment in the The History of the Peloponnesian, mowed the rest of the lawn, "summerized" the library room, and watched several issues of Cranford. (Yes, I splurged I never watch the television. The Peloponnesian Wars had fried my brain!)
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, went to work, prepared his presentation for a county financial class the judge and prosecuting attorney asked his to put on, listening to Master and Commander, listening to The Great Improvisation, had a Bishopric Meeting, and went to mutual.

03/10/09 (Tue): Ears

Today our big excitement was that "someone" trying to be helpful jabbed Caleb in the ear with a qutip during our voice lesson. They thought they were helping by getting the wax out of Caleb's ear because Caleb keeps saying he can't hear out of that ear (but he has a headcold). The poor child that did it cried the rest of the afternoon because they were so remorseful. Caleb's ear bleed a little bit and after some rest and motrin he was doing lots better. Meaning he was fighting with Luke like usual and telling me he was fine and didn't need to go to the doctor. But our voice lesson and piano lesson were quite long because of all the interruptions. Good thing our voice teacher is so patient with us. She never knows what the state of affairs will be here when she shows up!


Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Song: My Eternal Family
Theology: Chapter 21: "The Gifts of the Spirit" in Gospel Principles.
Scripture Stories: Ismael and his family join Lehi
Scripture Reading: Luke 15
Friend Article
Biography/American History: Two chapters from Andrew Jackson: Young Patriot by George Edward Stanley from the Childhood of Famous Americans Series.
Literature: "The Tempest" from Stories From Shakespeare by Usborne books. Jared told me today when I was getting to read a story, "Mom, I love Shakespeare stories."
Read-a-loud: Started and read 3 chapters from Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Memorization: All the states of the USA alphabetically and The books in the Old Testament.
Family History: Read a biography of John Calvin Hancock written by my aunt.
Greek: Learned the first four letters of the Greek alphabet.
Science: Chemistry from Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
Health: Proper hygiene-bathing and brushing your teeth
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in The Book of Mormon.
New Era/Christianity: Played some games and quizzes on- line with The New Era.
Music: Had her voice lesson.
Geography: Did a geography lesson on reading grid maps.
Science Experiment: Tending to her flat of tomato and radish plants.
Math: Lesson 111 from Saxon Math 6/5
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Verbs from Easy Grammar
Creative Writing: Wrote an essay on "The person I would like to meet."
Research: Researched writing contests that she wants to enter online.
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- Inimical
Vocabulary/Language Usage: Did a Greek Root Words lesson.
Greek: Learned the first 13 Greek alphabet letters.
Life Skills: Made "boxed lasagna."
Pet Care: Cleaned Hank the dogs ear out because of his ear infection and gave him medicine.

Jared
Religion: Read a chapter in The New Testament Reader.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.
Math: Did a lesson in Singapore 3B.
Logic: Played Checkers with his brothers.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: He did 5 pages of Explode the Code.
Free Reading: Read for one hour in a Star Wars chapter book.
Book on Tape: 1 hour of Brisingr. We finally got this from the library. We've been on the waiting list for many months. I won't be seeing much of Jared until he finishes this!
Creative Play: Lot's of Legos today.

Luke
Religion: Read in his Book of Mormon Reader.
Geography: Learned about reading map grids.
Math: Did a Saxon Math 2 lesson.
Logic: Played Checkers with his brothers. He also put together a wooden 3-D dinosaur.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code.
Creative Writing: Editing his story on the computer. He also learned about story organization in a workbook he's using. He loves it. It's called "Just Write."
Language Arts: He used the dictionary several times to look of words he didn't know how to spell. He uses the dictionary A Spelling Dictionary for Beginning Writers by Gregory Hurray. You can get it through http://www.ldfr.com/ My children have always enjoyed this early reader dictionary. He also looked up words he didn't know from his geography lesson in Macmillan's Dictionary for Children.
Art: Drew and colored a picture.
Book on Tape: 1 hour of Brisingr. We finally got this from the library. We've been on the waiting list for many months.
Creative Play: Lego's
PE: Ran/walked on the treadmill for 20 min.

Caleb
Logic: Played checkers with his brothers.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 4 pages of Explode the Code.
Phonics/Computer: He also played Explode the Code online.
Writing: He is finishing a creative writing lesson writing down things about is neighborhood.
Reading: Read a phonics reader to me and practiced his sight words.
Creative Play: Played with K'Nex and Lego's today.

Family (in the evening):
PE: The boys had wrestling practice.
Luke 16
Reading: Read 3 more chapters of Farmer Boy.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, spell drill, word of the day, piano practicing, voice practicing with the voice teacher (she's so nice), taught a piano lesson, worked on the Greek alphabet and worked on a BYU-Geography lesson.
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, worked in the temple, went to work, finished The Iliad by Homer and started The Odyssey by Homer.

Story of the World

The'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/225951.The_Story_of_the_World_History_for_the_Classical_Child_Volume_1_Ancient_Times_From_the_Earliest_Nomads_to_the_Last_Roman_Emperor_Revised_Edition?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49276.Susan_Wise_Bauer">Susan Wise Bauer

My'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28323806?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
My children love these books. Well, they love listening to them over and over on CD. These books provide a solid historical outline of major historical events. Because my children listen to the Cd's over and over they practically have these books memorized. Once this solid outline is in place it is easy for me to pull a classic book off the self and read it to them and they can understand where in history this fits in. The CD's themselves (narrated by great voices) are on my top 5 homeschooling resources. Teaching World History could not be easier...

View'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1064820?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.

Jingo

A couple of years ago we bought a game called I Love America Jingo. It's basically a bingo game. Instead of pulling out a number or a picture though you pull out three clues and you have to guess what the answer is. Then you put your marker on the picture. There is a picture by the clues though so you know you've gotten it right. For example, it might say, "This man was never president, but helped found our country. He is famous for his inventions. He signed the Declaration of Independance." Or something like that. (Benjamin Franklin by the way).

This game is an easy way to cover a lot of information with out having to teach it. They'll memorize all the cards (50 or so??) soon enough, but they will have the knowledge retained. Which is good if you especially like The Well-Trained Mind educational model for lots of early age memorization.

So I googled it since I bought it at an educational store in a far of state I was passing through. I remembered there were lots of different verisons. Well there are. Here's a short list...human body, presidents, math, geography.... I've decided I'm going to buy some more! Here's one link I found. They are around $15.

Fun Physical Fitness

We bought the book "Fun Physical Fitness" that came with a CD from Latter-day Family Resources about 5 years ago. (They are currently not selling them though. I'd check other on-line catologs). The CD is filled with fun music and the book describes the specific actions you are suppose to do with the music. Our children have always enjoyed doing this. The first part lasts about 25 min (I should time it). It is good exercise. I get tired and sore when I do it. It has a lot of stretching and some exercises to gain strength in major muscle areas. It's not to hard that little kids can't do it, but still hard enough it works the mama!

The only complaint we have with this is that it takes quite a bit of listening to the CD to figure out the actions. The words are only written down in the book and are not sung to the CD music so we've actually made up our own version on some parts.

We do recommend this program especially for snowy and cold days when you can't get outside.

Explode the Code

The Explode the Code series is a great phonics and handwriting program. The reason I like it is because not only are the children learning phonics in a systematic order but they are also practicing their handwriting skills. It's a two for one! There are 3 primer books (called A, B, C) and 8 regular workbooks. It is very straightforward and fun to do. This program is available through most major online homeschooling resource sites. (ldfr.com, timberdoodle.com, etc)

My kids have all really enjoyed going through this series. They have always looked forward to doing it. They love doing lots of pages in it daily. We wish they had a grammar program.

Our family recommends this phonics and handwriting program. It's the best one we have seen!

Saxon Math

We have only used Saxon 2 (2nd grade), 5/4, and 6/5. But we have 7/6, Algebra 1/2, and Algebra 2. We haven't used any other math programs so we can't compare. In our family we refer to Saxon math or curriculum math as "Newtonian math." Which just simply is a branch of math or the language of math.

As far as Saxon math goes it just works. We don't love it and we don't hate it. The kids are always willing and choose to do math everyday so it can't be to bad. We have continued to use it because it is what our kids were using in the public school. Saxon is very thorough. Almost to much so. It is highly repetitive. A good deal of the book is a review of the previous year's book. If your child is very math intelligent this may be to repetitious.

It is also all inclusive meaning that besides add/sub/mult/div the child also works on basic geometry, algebra, telling time, and measurement. I don't remember doing algebraic equations in elementary but these books are heavy into it by the 4th grade.

I think the reason they are so repetitive is that they are designed for public school. Last March when we pulled Olivia out of public school she was on lesson 47 out 142. While Olivia finished the book with me (we had to do a lot of Math) her fellow 4th graders did not. A couple of weeks ago the kids were talking to their friends. At the time Jared and Olivia were just starting the lessons in the 50's, but their friends were on lesson 20. Hmm... Now you know why they are so repetitive, the schools never get through them...

Okay, way of subject. We like them. We have them. If we could get our hands on Singapore (another famous math program) with out spending a lot of money we would probably switch. But free Math text books are good for now. (We had received them from previous homeschoolers).

Grade: B

McGuffy Readers

Ahhh the famous McGuffy Readers! Oh, how we love them so. These are a big hit in our family. Our kids get a kick out of reading these quaint little stories from pioneer days. I enjoy the morals and characters that most little stories try to present. Our kids enjoy looking at the picture that goes along with each story. We have never had a problem getting our kids to read them when we suggested it.

These readers start out at the most basic level however your child will need to be familiar with the alphabet as well as basic sounds. The readers progress fairly quickly. If you child is having a hard time learning to read I would suggest a couple months off and them coming back to them. This method as worked for our home. The words are repeated in the various stories as you keep going so the harder words will start sticking in your child's mind.

I do find that while I like the "sweet" little stories I found that some of the morals were presented in a somewhat passive aggressive way. While some behavior may be slightly outdated we did enjoy talking about how things were different back "in the olden days." There are also some words that are not commonly used now or have different meanings.

A definite score with our family.

Musical Noteboooks

Musical Notebooks is a CD of music with an accompanying book. The songs are designed to be a fun way to learn Patriotic facts, geography facts, anatomy, and many other things. I believe they were created by another home school family.

These are definitely home made jobies! The music is to high and often times you can't understand the words. We do not feel there are any songs to catchy tunes. These are available through LDFR.com and were over $20. For our family it was a BIG waste of money.

Story of the World

Our family loves the Story of the World series! These books are written by Susan Wise Bauer. They are world history books written to be understood by 5-12 year olds. There are four volumes to this series.

The books are written in story form so they are fun to listen/read. The author highlights the major events in history. She also covers often forgotten places and times in history such as India and China. The world religions are also covered. Mrs. Bauer does not give her opinions, she only gives the history. The book would not serve as a review of Christianity, although Old Testament prophets are discussed. Your child will learn things like who settled Asia Minor, how Alexander the Great died, who made the pyramids, who brought Christianity to the Celts, how the Roman empire collapsed, who was Mohammed and much more. I love reading these books to them.

In addition to the books you are also able to buy study guides. These study guides are filled with activities that correspond with each chapter. For example there are maps to learn from and pictures to color. There are also study questions, narration helps (for you Charlotte Mason people) and references for additional books. We have found that our family doesn't use the activity books. They are certainly fun and I do recommend them-we just haven't used ours much. (That could be due to the fact that I'm a reader and not a doer. I don't believe it's any reflection on the activity books. They really are great workbooks!)

You are also able to purchase the audio CD's of the book. We have found that this is a must-have investment for our home. Our kids have listened to the CD's over and over. They listen to them in the car, at night or when they are playing legos. Because the books are so interesting they will keep listening to them. This has solidified their retention and comprehension of the history.

We find this a perfect overview for the elementary years of world history. From there you can branch off with the great literature she recommends in her activity books that give more insight into that time period. She has also starting writting the series in the same format at an adult level. I have not read those yet, but I will!

We highly recommend!

Curriculum Review

I have had a lot of hits to my blog about various curriculum. I decided to write reviews on all of the resources I've used and why I have liked them or not liked them. So stay tuned...

Daily Schedule 10/10/08

Today we took a half day off from school. We all kind of were run down. Olivia has pinkeye. Luke was home also.


Biography/American History: 2 Chapters in James Monroe: Good Neighbor Boy
Fairy Tales/Fables: 7 fables from Fables of Leonardo DaVinci
Read-a-loud: Read 2 chapters in Prince Caspian
Memorization: Memorizing of the first 8 presidents of the US
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.
Horse Riding Lessons Today!

Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Math: Lesson 32
Writing: Wrote a book review about Fablehaven on Good Reads
Typing/Computers: Good Reads and Blogging

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 32
Math Facts: Did 1 multiplication fact page from his workbook
Life Skills: Made Sweedish Pancakes


Family (in the evening)
Matthew 21
1 chapter in The Princess Bride

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Made dinner for a neighbor
Good Reads book reviews
Re-read parts of The Well Trained Mind for some homeschooling ideas
Read Goose Girl for 1 hour

Ran for 30 minutes
Practiced the piano

Alex
Went to work
College class
Finished Crime and Punishment
Outside yard work

Curriculum Review

George Washingon: Young Leader by August Stevenson

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

So far I've been really impressed with this series. My children really seem to be connecting to the people and are really getting a feel for what it was like to live and grow up during that time period.

I was really impressed with how great George Washington was. It's inspired me to read an adult bio of him sooner than later.

View'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1064820?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.

Scholar Book Review

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was amazing! I don't think it was my favorite book of all time, but it is certainly up there.

I read the Unabridged version. I think that I will recommend the abridged version to my children for their first read. I think this book with be one of the core books in our family as our children get older.

I think this book as layer after layer of depth to it. I would like to read it again and explore the characters Valjean and Marius more closely. This is a book that you need to read again and again. With each reading uncovering more great treasures.

For me the crowing splendor of this book is simply the words on the page. It is just beautiful and refreshing to my mind down to my inner soul. This is the type of book you read and you walk away changed and illuminated.

I struggled with the French. I know absolutely no French. In my translation there were a lot of words that were not translated and I had no idea what they were talking about. I also struggled with the French names and locations. I'm sure further reading would add clarity to some of these. Occasionally I mixed some of them up as I read through it.

I highly recommend this book!

View all my reviews.

Dr. Aardsma's Spelling Drills

I've had numerous search hits to my site about Dr. Aardsma's Spell Drill in the short time I've had my homeschooling blog. So I thought I'd do a specific post on them.

I love them! For our family it's a great alternate medium to break up repetitious book work. They are a "computer game."

Here's how it works: You enter your name, grade and desired spelling list. (Abeka, Bob Jones, etc. It has about 7 lists). Once you've signed in it stores your name, "grade", spelling list and how you do each time. If you are in 4th grade you will receive 20 questions. The narrator gives you the word, then he repeats it in a sentence. You have two chances to spell it correctly. After that it will then show you the correct spelling and then you have to try to do it again until you get it correct. After several times of correctly spelling the same word from various spell drills that word is dropped. Each time you do a spell drill new words are added. But if you are a 4th grader you only ever get 20 words per session.

I enjoy it because the child is not endlessly quizzed on words they know and new words are given as they progress. Therefore, they can go through as quickly as they are able. They love the challenge to get a word they haven't been getting right. And like I mentioned early it just breaks the learning up into different mediums. A bonus for elementary children!

There is nothing flashy about this program. It rather boring appearance wise. It's simple and straight to the point. This is not an arcade game at all.

I hope this helps. Please ask questions in the comment box if you have them and I'll be happy to answer them!